[Dixielandjazz] Tommy Newsom RIP

[Robert S. Ringwald]

Just received word of Tommy's passing.  It saddens me.  He was a good and 
long-time friend and a wonderful musician.

--Bob Ringwald


Tonight Show' Band Member Tommy Newsom Dies at 78
By Adam Bernstein
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 30, 2007; 2:10 PM
Tommy Newsom, 78, a jazz saxophonist and arranger who gained national
visibility as a key member of Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show" band for three
decades, and whom Carson drolly nicknamed "Mr. Excitement" for his
stone-faced looks and somber outfits, died April 28 at his home in
Portsmouth, Va. He had bladder and liver cancer.
As a personality, Mr. Newsom pretended to have none. Carson gently taunted
him for his deadpan expression and bland tastes -- his suits ran the gamut
from brown to navy blue.
"As a child, one time Tommy got lost and his parents couldn't describe him
to the police," Carson once said. On another occasion, Carson said Mr.
Newsom "wants to come back as a plant, so somebody will talk to him."
Periodically, Mr. Newsom topped Carson's one-liners.
When Carson asked why Mr. Newsom kept his jacket buttoned, the saxophonist
replied that his rear end would otherwise fall off. This prompted executive
producer Fred De Cordova to remind Mr. Newsom that the host was supposed to
get the bigger laughs.
Despite the gags, Mr. Newsom was a graceful musician and veteran of bands
led by guitarist Charlie Byrd, clarinetist Benny Goodman and society
bandleader Vincent Lopez. Mr. Newsom became an NBC studio musician, worked
for Merv Griffin and soon after was assigned to the "Tonight" program in
early 1962, several months before Carson took over.
Mr. Newsom spent the next 30 years on the show, most of the time directly
under the bandleader and trumpeter Doc Severinsen, who was known for his
loud outfits. Mr. Newsom became assistant music director in the late 1960s
and took over the baton in Severinsen's absence.
"I think the first night I took over for Doc, Carson recoiled," Mr. Newsom
told the Los Angeles Times. "He was so used to having foils on either side,
Ed [McMahon] over here and Doc over there, and he needed somebody to bounce
something off of, so the gags began.
"I guess my cardboard cutout style makes a good contrast to Doc's flamboyant
image," he said. "Carson has really laid some heavy ones on me. One night he
said I was the only person who was going to reach puberty and senility at
the same time."
Thomas Penn Newsom was born Feb. 25, 1929, in Portsmouth, Va., where his
father was a pharmacist and his mother taught kindergarten. As a child, he
was exposed to opera and popular big band music over the radio. His mother
played piano and sang.
His parents bought him a saxophone at 8, and he immediately launched into
one of Brahms's Hungarian rhapsodies, albeit with unorthodox fingering. He
later received formal training and, as he told an interviewer, began playing
in a school band -- "two girls playing a piano, several violins, a trumpet,
a clarinet or two and I had a C-melody sax."
By 13, he was playing professional engagements in the Norfolk area at
everything from school dances and to returning World War II servicemen.
"My parents kept a very loose rein on me," he later told a Norfolk reporter.
"They were grand, but they were very lenient. They had faith in me."
By 1952, he had graduated from the Norfolk division of the College of
William & Mary and the Peabody Institute in Baltimore -- taking music jobs
in strip clubs to supplement his income. He spent four years in the Airmen
of Note, the Air Force's big band, and received a master's degree in music
education from Columbia University.
Meanwhile, he began an active freelance career based in New York. He
recorded with fellow Tidewater jazzmen such as Charlie Byrd and clarinetist
and vibraphonist Tommy Gwaltney. His most prestigious early job came in 1961
and 1962, when he toured the Soviet Union and South America with Benny
Goodman's big band.
While with Goodman, he wrote a well-received composition, "Titter Pipes,"
that became a showcase number for two other saxophonists on the Soviet tour,
Phil Woods and Zoot Sims.
Mr. Newsom continued to cultivate his reputation as a solid
composer-arranger. Over his long career, he arranged for Byrd (including
1964's "Brazilian Byrd" album), jazz trumpeter Buck Clayton (for whom he
wrote "Kansas City Ballad") and the all-female jazz orchestra Diva. He also
arranged for opera singer Beverly Sills, country singer Kenny Rogers and the
Cincinnati Pops orchestra.
Mr. Newsom also did musical arranging for such TV broadcasts as "Night of
100 Stars II" (1985) and the "40th Annual Tony Awards" (1986), and he shared
Emmy Awards for both productions.
Long settled in Los Angeles, California's Northridge Earthquake in 1994
persuaded him to relocate to Portsmouth. He recorded several CDs, including
three for the Arbors label, and played at music festivals nationwide.
With the self-deprecation that made him a household name, he once told a
festival audience, "And now we're going to render George Gershwin for a
while. Probably into a bar of soap."
Survivors include his wife of 49 years, Pat Hernansky Newsom of Portsmouth;
a daughter, Candace Liebmann of Teaneck, N.J. A son, Mark Newsom, died in
2003.
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--Bob Ringwald K6YBV
916/806-9551
www.ringwald.com
--
Leader, The Fulton Street Jazz Band
www.fultonstreetjazz.com
--
The Boondockers (jazz and Comedy)
www.theboondockers.com

"Good breeding consists of concealing how much we think of ourselves
and how little we think of the other person." --Mark Twain
 --